Strike up “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”: Bunheads has been canceled

Looks like ABC Family will let it end that way: After months of deliberation, the network has opted to cancel freshman drama Bunheads. “We took extra time to try and find ways to bring the series back for another season, but in the end it simply wasn’t possible,” said an ABC Family spokesperson quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, acknowledging that even in an era when you can will a beloved television property back to life with your Kickstarter dollars, eventually everything you love or have loved will die. If you’re lucky, those things will then be memorialized by the kind of haunting, lyrical dance sequence that Bunheads is no longer around to deliver.

The announcement brings to end a period of speculation during which the Internet did everything in its limited power to determine the fate of the series, with critics and reporters relaying stories of dismantled sets and eventually just flat out breaking down and demanding an answer via headline imperative. Well, now you have your answer, and it’s probably not the one you wanted, but you can brush it off with a motormouthed, pop-culture-literate quip and proceed straight to YouTube to watch 2013’s most essential Tommy Lee Jones impressions. And then dance out your feelings, because if we’ve learned anything from Bunheads, it’s that that’s the only appropriate reaction to a development like this.